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Living Drug

Yes, this is big news and a giant scientific achievement--but it is far
from a universal cancer cure. The FDA yesterday recommended approval for a
new Novartis cancer treatment/drug that uses a patient's own cell to fight
cancer. It is a complicated process: cells are removed from a patient at a
cancer center, frozen and shipped to Novartis where they are genetically
altered, frozen, and shipped back. Then they are given to the patient.
There have been long remissions and maybe even cures achieved in some
children with leukemia, and the company is working to offer the treatment
for other cancers.

Here is the catch: each cycle costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. If
this is your child, it is worth every penny. As a country, we have to
figure out how to pay for this.

From The New York Times:

F.D.A. Panel Recommends Approval for Gene-Altering Leukemia Treatment

A Food and Drug Administration panel opened a new era in medicine on
Wednesday, unanimously recommending that the agency approve the first-ever
treatment that genetically alters a patient’s own cells to fight cancer,
transforming them into what scientists call “a living drug” that powerfully
bolsters the immune system to shut down the disease.

If the F.D.A. accepts the recommendation, which is likely, the treatment
will be the first gene therapy ever to reach the market. Others are
expected: Researchers and drug companies have been engaged in intense
competition for decades to reach this milestone. Novartis is now poised to
be the first. Its treatment is for a type of leukemia, and it is working on
similar types of treatments in hundreds of patients for another form of the
disease, as well as multiple myeloma and an aggressive brain tumor.